O Lord, who hast blessed five loaves in the desert, Graciously give us bread for life's needs. Almighty God, let not Thy gifts lead us to sin. Let not the goblet of sparkling wine induce us to misdeeds. While we enjoy our feast, let us also in charity remember All those who suffer want and hunger. May not the pleasure of the body stifle the inspirations Of Thy Holy Spirit, O Lord.

O Divine Saviour, who rose from the dead on that first glorious Easter morn, grant that I may rise from my sins and so live as to see You, glorious and immortal, in heaven. Lord, I am nothing, but, although nothing, I adore You.

I've had a number of requests for the recipe for the Strawberry Trifle we made for the feast of St. Joseph. There really wasn't any particular significance to why we included it on our St. Joseph Altar, other than the fact that my girls were finishing up "S" week and it was a great way to use some Sliced Strawberries!

It would be a great addition to upcoming Easter celebrations, and since it is based on the flavors in a popular Mexican cake, it would be great dessert to make in honor of any of the Mexican Saints.

4. To assemble, place half of the pound cake mixture into Trifle Bowl; top with half of the strawberries. Spread half of the pudding mixture over strawberries. Repeat layers one time. Pipe whipped topping over top; garnish with strawberry fan.

5. Enjoy! Oh, and be sure to share! ;)

Update: I just read on Colleen's blog, Footprints on the Fridge, that she is planning to serve this dessert on Sunday night, Palm Sunday. She says that they will have "passionfruit juice (since this Sunday is also known as Passion Sunday)..." and this trifle "... which we will use to symbolize that even though we are saddened that Christ had to shed His blood for us (the red), we are filled with gratitude that by His sacrifice, we are washed clean (the white)." Isn't that perfect?! Thank you for sharing your creativity with all of us Colleen!
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A couple weeks ago I decorated some Fig Newtons to look like Bibles/Books and placed them on top of cupcakes as a snack for my Little Flowers Girl's Club.

Those little cookies got me thinking about Palm Sunday (Palm Sunday is also known as Fig Sunday since tradition says that Jesus ate figs after entering Jerusalem.) and planning the following dessert to serve my family.

Place a scoop (or two) of ice cream in each serving dish. Drizzle syrup over the ice cream. Place a small dollop of whipped cream over each scoop and top with a cherry. Serve with Decorated Fig Newtons.

Here is a picture of the "Palm Sundaes" made by Sara at A Shower of Roses. I love the Palm Frond Cookies she cut out to go with the Sundaes!

Last month I was blessed with being the very thankful recipient of a whole bunch of dinners made by a local Little Flower Girl's Club as a service project! One of the dinners was this lentil soup, which was very delicious. I was able to get the recipe from my friend Kathleen so I could make it again, and then share the recipe here at Catholic Cuisine. Enjoy!

Rinse the lentils. Bring them to a boil in the salted stock. Reduce the heat and simmer, covered, for 40 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a heavy soup pot. Saute the onions until translucent. Add the garlic, cayenne , bay leaves, and raw bulghur. Stir the mixture on medium heat until the onions and bulghur are lightly browned.

Mix in the parsley and tomatoes. When the tomatoes begin to give up their juice, gently stir in the tomato paste.

Pour the lentils and their liquid into the soup pot with the onions and bulghur. Simmer the soup for 15 minutes. Add the rosemary, salt, and pepper to taste. If the lentils and bulghur have absorbed too much liquid, add more stock, water, or tomato juice. Remove the bay leaves.

Just before serving, stir in the fresh spinach and let it wilt in the hot soup. Garnish with more fresh parsley and serve with crusty bread.
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Make crust by combining dry ingredients in a large bowl. Melt butter and add to dry ingredients. Mix thoroughly. When incorporated, press evenly into nine-inch springform pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown.Combine cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Add corn starch and blend. Add eggs and mix thoroughly, scraping the sides of the bowl. Add vanilla and sour cream. Mix until smooth and fold in passion fruit puree. Pour batter into a springform pan and bake at 300 degrees for approximately one hour and thirty minutes, or until set. Cool slowly and completely refrigerate for several hours.
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3. Heat oil, pressed garlic and pepper flakes in skillet over medium-high heat 1-2 minutes or until garlic turns golden (do not allow to burn). Immediately stir in tuna and tomatoes; cook 2-3 minutes or until tomatoes are tender. Add pasta, half of the parsley and half of the cheese to Skillet; toss gently.

4. To serve, divide pasta among serving plates. Sprinkle with remaining parsley and Parmesan. Serve with lemon wedges on the side.
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♣ Place candy pieces and place into the freezer for 15 minutes.
♣ Blend milk and spinach until smooth.
♣ Add vanilla ice cream and candy and blend on medium speed for 30 seconds. Stir with a spoon and blend for 30 more seconds.
♣ Repeat until desired consistency is reached.
♣ Top with whipped cream.

I just got the packaged tilapia from Costco and cooked it according to package directions except lightly sprinkling equal amounts of wine and lemon juice. For about 6 fish filets I used probably 1/8 a cup of each. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Meanwhile slice peppers and onions thinly and fry in a little bit of oil.

When fish is done, flake it up.

We like these served on homemade tortillas, you can find the recipe here: Whole Wheat Tortillas
It is all pretty easy and very yummy! Even my little ones will eat it! Ok, ok... they do pull off the peppers and onions, but they eat the fish!

Update: I forgot to add (thank you PNG for reminding me) that this is so simple to add your favorite spices too. My kids like it mild, so i didn't add anything special other than the ones listed above. Also I would have had salsa on they too, but we were out!

This recipe for baked beans, a traditional Irish side dish, was submitted by Janet, from ADD Honey Bee. Thank you Janet!

The kids love these beans. They have molasses and brown sugar in them which is probably why. We've renamed Boston Baked Beans, St. Patrick's Beans, my recipe varies a bit from the original to eliminate food allergens. It is vegetarian, nightshade free, casein and gluten free. We serve this with boiled cabbage and turnips. I've also made Irish Soda bread, but the kids can't have it and us not having it is a sacrifice. I use a Crock Pot and don't soak the beans. I was one of those folks who used to get fussy about non-Irish celebrating a wonderful saint by partying until they puked, but now I'm happy to sign a petition to make St. Patrick's Day a national holiday, even if it is sponsored by a beer company. Wouldn't it be wonderful if a Catholic Saint was honored with a national holiday? I think of a wonderful opportunity to evangelize Christians and non-Christians world wide about this wonderful Catholic, not just Christian, saint.

This food/craft recipe was submitted by Victoria, from Designer Pastry, for publication here at Catholic Cuisine. I think it is such a cute idea! Victoria made the Shamrocks on her cupcake bouquet with Fondant, but they could be made many different ways. Thank you Victoria!

Here is a picture of one of the Cupcake Bouquets our family bakery, Designer Pastry, put together for Saint Patrick's Feast Day. We used a small festive container, found at Michaels, and topped it with a green foam ball that we cut to size and attached gourmet cupcakes that we arranged like you would for a floral arrangement.

On this cupcake bouquet, we made Mint Filled Brownie Cupcakes. You can use any brownie batter, but I suggest making one with Dutch processed Cocoa, which has a much richer flavor than the typical Hershey's Cocoa. Then, after pouring about 1 heaping tablespoon of the brownie batter into standard muffin cups, place in one peppermint patty (York will do just fine) and then cover with additional brownie batter. After cooling cupcakes on a cooling racking, ice them with white buttercream frosting. Use green gel paste color to tint fondant and use a shamrock cookie cutter to cut out shamrocks to be set upon the white buttercream. We cut off the shamrock stem to make it look a little more like a shamrock bouquet.

Do any of you happen to have the St. Nicholas Cookie Cutters? I purchased a set last year and wanted to take a second to point out how well they work for various other feast days as well!

For the St. Patrick Cookies pictured above, we used our favorite sugar cookie recipe, the "Small Nick" cookie cutter (as well as Wilton's Shamrock), painted them with a thin green icing (plus sprinkles on the shamrocks), and piped on chocolate decorating icing for his miter and staff. Didn't they turn out cute?!

Basically the St. Nicholas cookie cutters could be used to represent any Pope or Bishop!

Line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil and lightly coat it with cooking spray.

To create the clover shape, mold 3 sections of bread sticks into hearts and press them together as shown. Attach a small stem, decorate (with a sprinkling of colored sugar and cinnamon), bake according to the package directions, and serve.
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This recipe is from originally from Family Fun and would be a fun snack to serve on March 17th, the Feast of St. Patrick.

Ingredients:

Green Pepper
Cheddar Cheese
English Muffins

To make one, slice a green pepper crosswise near the pointed end to get a small, three-lobed shamrock shape. (If your pepper has four lobes, you've got a lucky clover instead.) Cut a small slice for a stem.

Toast half an English muffin, then top it with a slice of Cheddar and the pepper shamrock. Place the muffin on a tray, then broil it in a toaster oven until the cheese is melted.

We give thee thanks, almighty God, for all your benefits, who livest and reignest forever and ever. Amen.

May the Lord grant us His peace. And life everlasting. Amen.

Alternate conclusion:And may the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God rest in peace. Amen.

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